“We buy houses” or some variation of it is all over the real estate investing world. As a market starts heating up, the phrase starts showing up everywhere:
- Bandit signs
- Craigslist
- Google searches
- Flyers
- Door Hangers
- Billboards
Everywhere.
What if all of a sudden someone tried to trademark the phrase? Then they could probably just turn their business model into suing every other real estate investor for trademark infringement.
Well one company did just that.
We Buy Houses (WBH) – a company that, surprise, surprise, promises quick cash offers for homes – once owned the phrase. Fortunately, they didn’t send out too many cease and desist notices to everyone else. They did, however, raise the ire of another real estate investing company who decided to take them to court over it.
Here is the page from the We Buy Houses website showing their trademark.
Case Details
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Hal Cranmer
Hal Cranmer has had a wild past. Born in India, he’s lived all over the world and started his working life as an Air Force Special Operations and Commercial airline pilot. After 9/11 brought him down from the clouds, he entered the corporate world and rose to the level of running a $36M machining plant. Yet from 2006 on, he caught the passion for real estate investing. He flipped a bunch of houses in Minneapolis and still owns several multifamily rentals there. Lately, he is into assisted living, and owns 5 assisted living homes in the Phoenix area. He loves to follow real estate trends, both locally and nationally.